29 Mar, 2024
Purim is a Jewish celebration, more like the Fourth of July or Mother’s Day, than a religious holiday like Passover. Purin is usually observed in February or March of each year. The word Purim means, “lots” as in a lottery, which was the means that the villainous Haman, an Amalekite, used to set the date for the massacre of Jews in Persia (previously Babylon). These events in the Book of Esther take place between chapters six and seven of the Book of Ezra. The setting is Persia, seventy years after they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. Israel spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon, which was later taken over by the Persians in 539 B.C. Just a year later, the Persian King Cyrus decreed throughout his empire that any captive Jews in Babylonia who desired could return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Cyrus even allowed the vessels of gold and silver stolen by Nebuchadnezzar’s troops to be returned. As we will read in Isaiah 48 , they all should have left, but some stayed behind. Let’s look at the cast of characters in this drama. The villain in the story was Haman, an Amalekite. The Amalekites were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. You might recall that these siblings had a long-standing conflict that revolved around the birthright. Esau, the firstborn, sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. The hostility that Jacob and Esau had for one another carried on through the generations like a bad gene. Esau had a grandson named Amalek, from which we get the name Amalekites. These cousins of the Israelites attacked them whenever they had the chance. When the Jews were led out of Egypt by Moses, the Amalekites attacked them in Rephidim, in the Sinai Desert. This unprovoked attack led God to promise to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven (Ex. 17:8-14) . Forty years later, in his last major speech to his people, Moses reminded the Jews of the command to go after Amalek (Deut. 25:17-19) . Saul, the first King of Israel, was commanded to wipe out the Amalekites (I Sam. 15:2-3) . But Saul disobeyed and spared the life of King Agag (I Sam 15:9) . This led to the premature end of the reign of Saul (I Sam. 15:23) . Saul, realizing his mistake, subsequently did kill Agag, but one of his sons survived. So not only was he disobedient, but he was also incompetent. Some 500 years later, one of his descendants was Haman. Others in the cast of characters included the royal couple, King Xerxes (some think it was King Ahasuerus or perhaps both names refer to the same person), and Queen Vashti. Then there was Esther, the Jewish maiden, and her uncle Mordecai. And so, with the setting in place, the cast of characters on stage, let the drama that led to Purim begin.